The Inner Mounting Flame

The Inner Mounting Flame is the debut album of fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra. It's early fusion and reminds me somewhat of the instrumental guitar albums of Frank Zappa. This one is much earlier and includes a violin that works very well. I like it more than I expected. A solid entry to the list.

Insane debut from an unbelievable group of musicians. Firing off in every direction, collects itself, then releasing again. Very aptly named! Should have been in the original selection

Stone. Cold. Masterpiece. As usual for that sort of so-called "challenging" music genre, the global score currently summing up the first reviews garnered for this admirable and most essential submission had me roll my eyes so hard I thought I hurt a nerve. 2.64? Like, what??? I know I shouldn't express my spite for the subjective tastes of other users here, but it's hard for me not to do so... Are all those people *deaf*? Is the music going too fast for them? Well, it doesn't even go *that* fast all the time... You also have a lot of slow, poised and absolutely "pretty" moments in this LP to catch your breath between yet another hectic, crazy jazz-rock jam. What I love the most in the album format is when you have lots of dynamics, and this particular example has tons of them to provide. So, to put it in a nutshell, the current global score for this one album is particularly maddening for me given that I find this one jazz-fusion highlight so accessible. It even managed to hold its own charts-wise at the time of its release, as I have recently discovered -- by the early seventies, rock, blues and jazz audiences were looking for the next Jimi Hendrix, you see, and if ever a virtuoso guitar player could rival with Jimi in terms of technique, creativity and imagination, John McLaughlin was the one! I swear to you I am not always a sucker for this particular genre, and that I can get tired by fusion-jazz dirges as easily as the next person. Miles Davis's *Bitches Brew*, also featuring McLaughlin, is for instance a tougher nut to crack! Of course, without Miles constantly breaking new ground before McLaughlin left his band, *The Inner Mounting Flame* would not exist. Yet how right McLaughlin was to go his own way... So please believe me when I say I am not necessarily a rock-jazz-fusion buff at heart. This record is different, though. The harmonic work in it is gripping from start to finish. "Meeting of the Spirits" is for instance a very inspired opener -- cinematic and fully emotional in its many build-ups. "Dawn" and "Vital Transformation", along with the short yet fully insane closer "Awakening", are relentless cuts, where drummer Billy Cobham pulls off so many incredible wonders -- to take only one example from the stellar personnel. And "The Dance of Maya" gradually builds up on an intense, menacing and almost dissonant riff that feels so humongous that John and the Mahavishnu Orchestra (including its next iteration and line-up) would often revisit it later on, creating many variations on that theme and flavoring them with different instrumentations (see for instance "Hope", on their second and next album *Birds Of Fire*). Besides, and as I let on earlier, the slower moments impress me as much as the fast or heavy ones here. "A Lotus on Irish Streams" provides a wonderful and evocative soundtrack inspired by classical and celtic traditions, with music so delicate I feel like I am stranded in a green field next to a babbling brook when I close my eyes and listen to it. Jerry Goodman's violin sounds so beautiful on this one... And the hypnotic groove of "You Know You Know" conversely comes off as quite dark and very urban-like, due to the patient clicks of that Rhodes-piano riffing performed by keyboard player Jan Hammer, famously sampled by Massive Attack for their own "One Love" on *Blue Lines*. Speaking of samples, McLaughlin, Cobham and the rest of Mahavishnu Orchestra are also artists who have provided a treasure trove of material for later hip-hop and electronic music producers and programmers. You'd be surprised to see that list of quite famous samples... It's another reason you simply can't understate the importance of that bunch. So yeah, this debut is an automatic addition to my own list of keepers. I would probably also include Mahavishnu's 100% great follow-up LP *Birds Of Fire*. After that, McLaughlin got up his own ass to an extent, and so you need to sort out the wheat from the chaff in the fistful of other LPs following that initial great run. But I guess that, here again, that whole yarn will be a story for another time, kiddies... 4.5/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums, rounded up to 5. 9.5/10 for more general purposes (5 for the musicianship and production values + 4.5 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 117 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 119 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 268 ---- Émile, *quatre* nouveaux messages pour toi au dessus, du *Solid State Survivor* de Yellow Magic Orchestra au *Atrocity Exhibition* de Danny Brown

Didn’t need to be an hour (constant refrain), but was a decent working soundtrack.

This album always confounded me - I do love a lot of jazz/rock fusion and being a guitarist this should have geeked me out but each time in the past when I went back to it it felt impenetrable. Honestly it was and still is the speed-demon guitar playing - just way too over the top for me and especially in the first cut ("Meeting of the Spirits"). Total chaos take: I think I'd love this album if guitar were even completely stripped from the entire record (the nuclear option probably unnecessary, but dialed-back guitar by about 50% would have been best). Sorry to all fellow guitar players. I enjoy the actual structures of the songs, though - mysterious with layered complexity and fkd up time signatures like all proper 70s fusion albums :) Having said all that, this is a good pick for the user's list - McLaughlin had a huge influence (for good and bad...) on a subset of guitarists for the next 20 years and Billy Cobham on drums should be more represented as well. Not a personal favourite but worthy of representation here. 5/10 3 stars IMO: Belonged in the book? Yes.

Quite a bit of faffing about. But good faffing. And at 45 minutes, the right amount.

Wow! This is incredible.

Very much enjoyed that. Thank you.

This is a ripper, bruh.

A masterclass in Jazz Fusion. A great album!

I liked this, and it's wild that it came out 55 years ago - it feels like it could have been from any time in the years between. It was on the verge of losing my a number of times - that rapid speed note-running thing that gets to feel like nothing other than a show of virtuoso speed - but always got me back.

Jazz fusion, progressive rock. Instrumental. Me ha gustado. Un 4.

Big fan of jazz albums that sound like they took 500 years and seven baby goat sacrifices to compose. Banging, really fun. Some crazy ass playing from literally every single person involved.

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Meeting of the spirits, Awakening

all right 4

Very interesting album outside of my typical listening habits yet still quite engaging!

5 stars for guitar skronk and ring modulator on the keys, minus 1 star for violin = 4 stars.

Beautiful

I really liked how the songs sounded different from each other. It was a little on the longer side, but I have no complaints.

More of a background type of music to me

I do love a good instrumental, and this album was succeeded in that regard. I'd give it a 3.5/5, pretty cool!

Eh it's fine. At least it isn't super long. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

It's crazy jazz fusion guitar!!! And if you want that then check this out

On the one hand some of these tracks are among the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard. On the other some of these tracks are way too busy and are an assault on the ears.

Cool vibes

Little too freak out jam bandy. I suppose the musicianship is off the charts, but definitely won't be returning to this one. 2/5

A hard no from me. Turns out jazz can get worse.